Local electricity sharing schemes have the potential to play an increased role in the Australian National Electricity Market as the penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) continues to grow. These models allow participants to share energy between separately owned and operated DERs, however are largely untested. While embedded networks have generally been established for specific circumstances such as shopping centres and airports, there is growing interest in their wider application in providing a framework for local sharing of energy resources. However, the potential operational and commercial implications for key stakeholders (including consumers, network operators and retailers) are not well understood. An example of one such proposal is within the Byron Arts and Industrial Estate through which the community owned retailer, Enova, is seeking to offer a bespoke energy solution to its customers within the estate.

In this paper, a new open source software model for assessing technical and commercial outcomes of local electricity sharing is presented. The model is applied to the Byron Arts and Industrial Estate case study which demonstrates the relevance of modelling to support appropriate investment and operational decision-making.